


through the dark

by ferim



Series: (over and over) [4]
Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: (kinda), Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Childhood Friends to Lovers, Childhood Memories, Cuddling, M/M, No Plot/Plotless
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-24
Updated: 2020-09-24
Packaged: 2021-03-07 18:21:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,830
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26632030
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ferim/pseuds/ferim
Summary: like a fireplace all lit up, sylvain is warm and real and here.the night is too cold and the house is too big. felix just wants a hug.for sylvix week 2020 (warmth)
Relationships: Felix Hugo Fraldarius/Sylvain Jose Gautier
Series: (over and over) [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1932850
Kudos: 36
Collections: Sylvix Week 2020 Fic Collection





	through the dark

**Author's Note:**

> i know it's still on time when u consider other timezones but oof this is... really late by my standards lmao. i wish i could say i was busy doing smth productive but really i readied the graphic for my tweet and proceeded to play games the rest of the day :) im a fool
> 
> this is also! just past and present sylvix being cuddly. as tagged, there's not much plot. i just want them to hug.

Felix doesn’t like the cold.

It’s difficult to move around when there’s a chance of frostbite, and he hates the lonely feeling blanketing his home no matter how many people are inside. It’s the dark. It’s too dark.

Felix hates the cold.

Who cares if there’s a gathering, some event his parents are holding. Felix is cold and it’s lonely.

He had wandered away and planned to go back into his room. Most of the guests are in the big hall of Felix’s too big house, so there’s no stranger within the hallway that takes him there. It’s cold and he wants to crawl back into bed. His parents probably won’t look for him because they know the same thing. No strangers would know the way to his room, would follow him there within their big, big house.

Felix is small and he’s cold and he just wants to go through this hallway with no strangers.

Only the presence of a friend.

“Are you okay, Fe?” Sylvain is holding his hand. He’s taller than Felix, which normally annoys him, but he’s cold and it’s lonely. The hand holding his is very warm.

“I’m okay,” he mutters. Sylvain’s parents also brought him here in Felix’s big, big house. They’re all the way over there in the hall, talking or whatever it is grown-ups do. The things they do all look so boring. Even when Sylvain’s parents talk with his. His mother said they’re friends but their meetings always look so boring. Felix doesn’t think they’re good friends. It’s not like what he and Sylvain have.

Theirs is cool! They made a promise! They made it under his blankets with only a flashlight to help them see. It was cool because Sylvain was really cool because the dark is always so scary but he wasn’t scared at all! The dark makes Felix feel lonely, and it can make him cry. Sylvain is cool because he stayed and he even pinky promised. They promised!

They’re going to be together forever and that’s cool. Sylvain is the best.

Theirs is special. Felix knows that.

Sylvain holds his hand all the way to Felix’s room, and when they open the door, it’s also cold. The lights are off as he left them, but Sylvain doesn’t tell him to turn it on. Instead, he grabs the nightlight from Felix’s desk, the one he gave Felix on his birthday, soft and shaped like a smiling cat. It’s a pale yellow hue when Sylvain turns it on, and Felix waits beside him because he doesn’t want to go to bed without holding Sylvain’s hand again.

Felix doesn’t want to let go even when he gets to bed. He grips tight when they hold hands again and Sylvain has him sit on one side.

“I’m wearing shoes,” he pouts, as if that’s enough to stop Sylvain from getting him to lie down, not when he literally asked Sylvain to take him here for this purpose. Felix wanted to go back here, but he doesn’t want to be alone if he goes to sleep. He wants to keep holding Sylvain’s hand. Sylvain is taller and older but his hands are very soft. It’s nice.

The glow from the nightlight makes Sylvain’s face prettier, even more when he laughs.

“Then take them off.” But Felix doesn’t want to. He wanted to go back to his room, but he doesn’t want to stay in bed and sleep in the dark. It’s too cold. He can never get used to it.

Sylvain looks at him strangely when he pouts. He looks happy and amused, and it makes Felix pout harder. He shouldn’t be amused! It’s too cold!

“Come on, Fe.” Sylvain lets go of Felix's hand and puts the nightlight by his bedside. It makes Felix panic so he reaches for Sylvain’s shirt. He might leave. Felix doesn’t want him to leave.

But he doesn’t. Instead, he sees Sylvain sit on his bed. He starts to take off his own shoes.

“Come on, I’ll stay here with you.” It makes Felix’s eyes widen, and he watches in awe while Sylvain slips out of his socks and fancy shoes. When he turns to Felix, he smiles wider. It’s a pretty grin and it makes Felix smile too.

He quickly takes off his shoes and socks this time now that he knows Sylvain would stay with him. He’s excited! It’s been a while since Sylvain slept over. It’s been a while since anyone’s even stayed to play with him these days. He’s happy.

Felix latches on as soon as Sylvain joins him under the blankets. He presses close and hugs him so, so tight, and it makes Sylvain laugh. It’s cold, Felix thinks, and Sylvain is the fireplace he used to sit next to in his favorite lounge room. It’s a big, big house and that lounge room has always been warm. Felix likes it, likes how warm everything is while he reads on one sofa or plays with Glenn on the floor. Sylvain reminds him of the feeling. Home.

Sylvain hugs him back, similar to how he always does when they all sleep together. Just like when Ingrid and Dimitri would stay with them. Felix misses them too. Sylvain hugs him tighter.

“I’m here, Fe.” And it’s really nice that Sylvain is here. He’s here. He’s so comfy. Felix thinks of the fireplace and he thinks of his blankets. The blankets that he and Glenn would use would always weigh a bit heavier than normal. Sylvain is like that and Felix likes it.

But he can’t stop thinking it’s lonely, so even if the blanket is surrounding him, Sylvain is surrounding him, Felix whispers.

“I miss Glenn.”

His parents tell him it’s not something to worry about, but he saw Glenn leaving at the airport with his grandparents and it scared him. Where was he going? Why was he leaving? His parents said it was for school, but why so far away? Who cares if it’s some fancy school? Why can’t he stay with Felix?

Glenn teased him and said video calls can exist too, but Felix doesn’t like the chill that replaced him. The house has always been very big, and now it’s scary. It’s cold and scary and Felix is glad Sylvain is here now. The room he used to play in with Glenn doesn’t feel the same even with the fireplace, but Felix is happy Sylvain is here. That, in itself, is enough.

Sylvain doesn’t tell him anything else, but he rubs Felix’s back and Felix holds on tighter. The nightlight keeps its glow even as both drift off to sleep.

+

The nightlight lasted well into his high school life, a miracle in itself, but it still broke. Somehow, even when Felix hid it quite well and made sure not to tell Sylvain, the latter still bought him a new one. He presented it with a smile and a claim that it was obvious something must’ve happened. It’s when Felix was told that since that night in the cold, that nightlight has not left his bedside since.

The new one sits in their apartment now, right by their bed. The memory of that day feels like a lifetime ago, but the chill somehow still persists even when Felix least notices it. Perhaps it’s just the house and how lonely it’s made him. It was hard to wait for Glenn to come back alone.

But his parents were right and he came back. Now he’s off galavanting somewhere because of his big important job that Felix never cared to know about. Most of the work related to his family are things Felix never cared to know about. He’s fine as far away from it as possible.

Unfortunately that whole time Glenn spent away has become a favorite topic when he visits his parents. And maybe he shouldn’t have missed Glenn because he’s teased him about it ever since. The only good thing that came out of it is Glenn becoming more active with his messages, and now that he frequents traveling overseas, Felix always sees a new message from him with an image of something foreign. Given the embarrassment of his childish self, that memory of the cold would’ve been something he’d push at the back of his mind with only Glenn’s reminders as ways to think about it.

But, regardless of that, it also brings fondness.

It’s overwhelming to think about, to dream about, when he wakes up in Sylvain’s arms. Their position is close to what they did as children, but it’s not the same. The nightlight beside their bed is turned off. It’s dark, and Felix thinks it should be cold. But it’s not.

Like a fireplace all lit up, Sylvain is warm and real and here.

While overwhelmed with a feeling normally associated with Sylvain, Felix presses closer. Sylvain, half asleep as he is, embraces him tightly, squeezing once to acknowledge his movement.

“Morning.” It sounds more of a question when Sylvain mutters it out. Felix can’t see his face, but he feels a kiss on his hair, easily done and so soft. It’s all so soothing, from the bed to the blankets to them in particular. It’s a nice feeling.

“It’s still early,” Felix responds in a whisper. He presses a kiss to whatever skin is in front of him. “Go back to sleep.”

There’s a hum and Felix feels lips again on his hair, but Sylvain also rubs his face a little on his hair. He’s too tired to say anything, and it’s definitely the sleepiness that supplies the thought of this being cute to Felix’s mind. He responds by encircling one arm around Sylvain too, and he sleeps ever closer.

It’s an echo of a part of his childhood, and it’s his exhaustion that tells him it’s nice that Sylvain’s still here.

Now there’s not much to worry about. All grown up, you’d think there’d be trouble, and there were. Just not anymore. And things are okay and they’re living together and have been for years now. Now they don’t have problems they feel are bigger than themselves. Maybe the new baking class Lysithea forced him to join with her, but Felix tries (as much as he can) to not think about that.

As if Sylvain knows what Felix is thinking about, he whispers words again to his hair. “I’m here, Fe.”

It’s clear even when it’s merely a whisper. It’s nice, comforting. Sylvain just mutters again. “I’m here.”

The fireplace back at home comes to mind, no longer lit now that the frequent occupants don’t live in the big, big house. But it’s fine because things are better here. Things are warmer.

There’s a fireplace right here with him, warmth always there for Felix to hold. So Felix presses closer, kisses the words I know to Sylvain’s chest.

There’s no glow from the nightlight this time. But Sylvain is here, and that is home.

**Author's Note:**

> ah btw.. the game i've been playing. it might make a cameo? who knows lol


End file.
